Neal Brown Evaluates Nicco Marchiol's First Career Start

WVU redshirt freshman quarterback Nicco Marchiol didn't exactly light it up in his first career college start, but he had a lot working against him. The receivers, mainly, and some pretty nasty weather. That position group has really underwhelmed through the first four games of the season in just about every way imaginable. 

"We got to do more at those positions to help the quarterback," said head coach Neal Brown Tuesday afternoon. "Our pass game all around has just got to be better. We just didn't do a very good job of executing. We need to throw it better at quarterback. We need to protect him a little better. And we just didn't make a whole lot of plays in space."

I noted this on Sunday morning's episode of Between The Eers, pretty much stating the same exact things. The receivers aren't just dropping passes, but they're also failing to get separation and have been unable to make plays in the open field. I feel like a broken record at this point talking about it, but it is what it is. 

Taking the poor receiver play into consideration, Marchiol managed the game well and didn't let the early bad decision that resulted in an interception to disrupt his confidence. He completed 12-of-21 pass attempts for 78 yards, a touchdown, and two picks while also rushing for a team-leading 72 yards on 15 carries.

"I thought he made a considerable jump from the last game when he played against Pitt," Brown stated. "And really if you think about it, he's played quite a bit the last three weeks. He played the second half versus Duquesne, played all but five snaps versus Pitt, and then played the whole game on Saturday. I think he's made steady improvement and that's to be expected. He threw some nice balls. There was only a couple [that weren't]. The first pick was not a very good decision. We got to get better on the deep balls. The one he threw to EJ [Horton] late was a great throw, but he threw a couple go balls where he really didn't give the guys a chance, so we got to do better at that. Overall, decision-making was improved. He just didn't get a whole lot of help. Our offensive skill guys got to help him out. But I'm pleased with his improvement. Can he play better? Yes. Will he be better? I believe so. I wasn't displeased with how he played on Saturday. He gave us a chance."

And while Garrett Greene is out, that's all you can ask Marchiol to do - give you a chance. The defense has been stout all season long and appears to be getting better by the week. If Greene happens to be out again this week for the TCU game, there's no need to panic. West Virginia is 3-0 in games where Marchiol played all of the majority of the offensive snaps (Oklahoma State, Pitt, and Texas Tech).

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